You get a long one.
"... What is this?" Whipping around with a giddy grin, I opened my mouth, Alex just raised a warning brow, telling me I was not in fact forgiven. Clearing my throat I relaxed into a smile, hopping over equally happy he was here, Adrian watching me with a hum. A careful arm snagging my waist before I could attach myself to the giant who was standing tall with his burly arms crossed in front of him. Huffing I blew a ringlet from my face, one arm turning into two as Adrian picked me up, gently setting me on his feet without bothering to unrestraint me.
"We're making a potions lab for me," I whined softly, glaring up at Adrian who just offered me a dazzling dimple-filled smile. The bastard. Wriggling around, I pushed at the arms under my own and tried to kick off his leg, but he didn't budge.
"For you?" Alex asked, glancing at my struggles but offering no help, before looking back to the construction. Latros walking around the few workers I had been gifted with a simple letter to my father. "They kick you out of the third-year lab?"
Pausing in my biting of a wrist I glanced at the workers myself before detaching my teeth, "Kind of? I couldn't make a scene anymore and-"
"You've got a mutt," Adrian cut me off, gaining Alex's attention, mutt. A wonderful way of putting it.
"Mutt?" He asked softly, understanding quickly that the dog was not a dog.
"They gave me a guard dog," I nodded, glancing in the direction of my relaxed mutt, who was laying beneath the shade of a tree, dozing off uncaring for his job. Something I couldn't help but want to join, the clouds gently decorating the sky with a calm breeze to guide them, the weather not hot nor cool, with flowers beginning to open and a wonderfully sweet scent in the air.
"That is an elite mage of the council," He stated, slowly, looking between us with a harsh gaze. Our words nearing treason. Glancing over at the dog assigned to me, his red eyes closed and ashy hair resting against his hands. Peacefully napping in the dirt. Where he should stay, preferably beaten into it. Blinking, a crackle of blue in the corner of my eyes I let out a cautious hum, following it to the peaceful sky.
"... I suppose you're right," I smiled pleasantly at him, quickly earning a narrowed gaze.
"Lilith, where'd you learn to smile like that?" He changed the subject while I couldn't help but look up at Adrian in mild confusion. He gently swiveled his head from side to side before motioning to Alex as if it was not a weird question.
"I... I don't understand?" I said honestly, looking between them, Adrian finally letting me go, almost leaving me to stumble over his feet, but Alex had grabbed me from under my arms like I was a child. Lifting me with ease, my eyes stared at my dangling feet for a long moment before I met his distraught and slightly upset gaze. "It was just my smile?" I tried again, bringing out even more disappointment as he let out a very loud sigh.
"Lilith, that was not your smile, that was the kind of face you make when annoyed, only you turned your lips up and closed your eyes. It wasn't a smile, it was patronizing," He explained carefully, slowly, nodding along to make sure I understood. My eyes drooped with a slanted smile at the idea, so it does show. I guess that's why Yastum told me to hide my eyes. Soften it a bit. "So," he continued, "Where'd you learn to smile like that?"
"... As an apprentice, I have to smile," I confessed what I had been told, and, just like that, my feet were once more on the ground. Blinking I stared at them for a moment before bouncing around Alex, who had looked mad. "I've got to fix it if you can see through it though, no point in getting punished, you know?" I grinned, hopping up to grab the arm that was raised upon my rounding him. It swayed ever so slightly at my weight but he was freed by Adrian as I was plucked off his arm and put back on the ground.
"As we were saying," Adrian cut in, "The mutt has a tendency to cause problems," He mimicked my smile while I snorted at the sight of it.
"Regardless of the trouble," Alex pressed with a quick glare, "Be careful with your words," His glare turned solely to Adrian for that while I let out a little hum, looking at the sky once again at the flickering reminder I have been trying to ignore. I got special treatment, I can get away with saying it with minimal consequences. This was not the case with them. Letting them whisper-bicker I watched the clouds, specifically, the parting of clouds.
A large red dragon forced the sparse clouds to disperse further, my brows raising as it didn't stop, no, it barreled straight into the barrier around the school. Shaking the very ground at the strength it used, a loud shriek followed suit as I wobbled in Adrian's newly unstable embrace. Their arguing over, a new mix of shouting and screaming finding my ears, one particularly close enough for me to process the words being shouted.
"Lilith!" He cut through their panic as my gaze very quickly went to him, with a quick escape from the tightened grasp I disregarded the calls of my friends. "By order of the council, you are to get the dragon away from the barrier!" He barked, while I glanced back to the dragon digging its claws into the barrier, a heat growing in its throat and that pleasant smell flooding through it. But more surprisingly, Averin had used proper terms! He had given a proper order!
With a deep breath, the pleasant smell now a sickeningly sweet one, I moved to do as told, only, a hand had grabbed my wrist. "We have to get inside," Adrain didn't hesitate, his eyes panicked and hand clammy.
"I got orders?" I tried, gently pointing to the barrier quickly being washed over with flames.
"Lilith its a dragon-"
"Let inside," Hissed Averin, ripping his hand off me while giving a more than rough shove to Adrian's chest. "Lilith," He shot me a warning glare. With a glance at my frightened friends, I looked back at the already angry dog. Humming, a red circle glowing beneath my feet, I put my fingers to my lips and gave a mighty whistle.
It didn't take more than a second before another dragon's roar shook the ground, obsidian climbing my neck. The pounding feet of a racing dragon not far off. With a grin I gave a sharp wave to my friends, letting them know I would be fine. My clawed hand catching the tail of a leaping dragon as I did so. Whipping into the sky I began my climb to the back of my dragon as my vision went black.
The ever-so-bright mana of a dragon not my own slammed into the faint bubble of the barrier. A crack clear as day. I just had to get it away from the barrier. That was all I was ordered to do. Leaning into Vitreus as we neared, I grunted at the impact, but didn't go flying this time. Both dragons biting and clawing as I did my best not to catch one of those massive claws myself.
Digging my false claws into Vitreus, I wrapped my obsidian tail around one of his spines, leaning back as blue crackled around at each clash, begging for attention. Attention I gave. With a chill down my spine, the lightning had quickly snapped into my hands, an ivory bow striking itself into existence, the blue string pulling back as a small red circle lit my fingers, a marble quickly taking the form of a large and boarish arrow.
Grunting as Vitreus lost the upper hand, quickly getting forced back by the dragon not much bigger, I had no choice but to fall back. Only, the barrier merely caught Vitreus. The harsh whipping of the wind more annoying than ever before. My body twisting as I held my bow, staring at the ground trying to figure out the best way to get back to my Vitreus. A rush of dark green mana shooting straight for me as I bend my legs forward, the obsidian claws crashing into it with a blue crackle. Glancing at who owned the mana, I found a familiar silhouette, the soft dirt beneath my claws telling me more than his silhouette.
So they were going to help, huh?
With a far too confident step forward, I did not find more earth magic, but rather a sharp crackle that delighted at my touch. Racing right back up to the barrier, I skid against a crackling sky as I notched my Latro once more, aiming for the beast attacking my Vitreus. With a thunderous sound, I released my arrow. Watching Latro grow, more and more, until it had broken through the barrier I had not considered and went straight through the wing of the foreign dragon.
A blood-curdling screech leaving the beast as it wavered in the sky, slamming back into the barrier, Vitreus not missing a beat as he dug his teeth into the side of its neck. Shaking the dragon off him, with a glowing throat he spewed his molten glass at the beast he was shoving further. Grabbing at the pierced barrier I pulled myself through, careful steps on the thing that had apparently registered me as an enemy now.
Pulling the obsidian from my face I blinked against the light, the dragon desperately fighting back but unfortunately at a disadvantage with both of us. Humming I called Latro back to my hand as I notched them again. Aim at the dragon that had begun to whine, defensive as it did try its best to get away I pulled my arrow back further before wavering as it looked at me. This wasn't the same.
It was, it definately was, but it wasn't. This fight was far easier, far to one sided. Licking my lips as I dropped my bow to my side, loosening the pressure one my Latro as I let out a loud sigh. The dragon was practically the same size as Vitreus, it was whining the same way he did. Get it away from the the barrier. Humming to myself I nodded side to side as Vitreus snapped at it, the two backing off and instead just growling at one another. I shot the wing.
"Well," I looked at Vitreus, who was still baring his fangs. He paused, glancing back at me before looking at the defensive dragon now stuck up here. Offering me nothing but a tail flick for an opinion. My choice then. "Go on," I sighed, the ivory bow disapating with small blue magic, "Get it out of here," I slapped his hind quarters as he gave a half hearted growl but shot forward at the dragon that had started to calm down. With a quick tussle, it was roughly and hardly in his claws, the two wrestling roughly even as he got them into the air.
With heavy swaying and terribly hard struggles, they began to crash as I watch for a second before looking into the barrier that was still put together but definately needed from repairs. Blinking my eyes refocused a few times until I found the earth mage that had helped me, Edward and the remaining elites watching. Too bad Ester was at war, they were stuck on the ground.
With a hop, skip, and leap, I fell through the large whole I caused, the strong and quickly called earth magic rushing to catch me as my false claws instead found a cracking sky as I took one leap into the next, merely glancing at the magic he thought I needed. Watching as the air cracked like glass, sharp blue strikes lingering against it, I smiled as I found the ground not far from them. Latro melting off without a command but never really needing one to begin with.
"I didn't kill it this time!" I beamed up at the head mage to the coucil I worked under, his dark gaze quite cold. Just like that he had raised his hand, wincing, the large hand not striking me like I had antisipated, instead, it found my head. Ruffling my hair as I blinked in surprise I looked up at him while he quickly began to bark orders to the elites and staff that had rushed out at the threat.
"You did good," He said, not looking back at me as my hands found my head, my gaze following him as orders not my own flew from his lips, his hands directing all that he deemed needed it.